There is no problem with experimenting. I just wanted to make sure that you realized that the file that should be coming out of t2merge will be not be logically any different than the file you started with. If you sent the original file back to the Tivo and played it back with caption turned on or if you set the file that came out of t2merge back and played it the viewing experience would be substantially the same. Both would show essentially the same captions at the same point in the video.

From the error message you are getting in your edited portion, I would suggest putting the original file through the Quick Stream Fix (QSF) function of VideoReDo and then repeating the experiment with the cleaned up version.

James,

After QSF on the original .TiVo file (which was a different one than before; it was a 5 min. clip of "The Rock" from Encore HD) VideoReDo produced a .mpg file which I cranked into t2extract and then t2merge. The latter produced an new .mpg file (!) and also a file named mplex.txt. The new .mpg file was too short, and the mplex.text file had in it

What does "Too many frame drops" suggest to you? Does it simply reflect the long series of earlier ++ WARN: messages? I would assume it does. But I would also assume that VideoReDo QSF's "cleaned up" output would be immune to this kind of problem!

I should also mention that the original .TiVo file was transferred directly from my TiVo to my Windows environment, and all subsequent processing was done within that environment. None of the files or folders were on a "pseudo" network drive as was previously the case. That eliminates one variable ...

Frame drops are typically caused by a target bit rate that is too low. Too many drops will stop the process because the results will be very poor. mplex is trying to calculate the value it should use. It looks like this may be coming out too low.

You can try to manually mux the .m2v and .ac3 files and override the rate with a command like the following to force a higher bit rate. If this works I will have to look at the code to see if I can send mplex a better value or allow you to override it directly.

Frame drops are typically caused by a target bit rate that is too low. Too many drops will stop the process because the results will be very poor. mplex is trying to calculate the value it should use. It looks like this may be coming out too low.

You can try to manually mux the .m2v and .ac3 files and override the rate with a command like the following to force a higher bit rate. If this works I will have to look at the code to see if I can send mplex a better value or allow you to override it directly.

No joy. I tried the suggested command and the result was exactly the same. I even raised the -r value as high as 40000 and it made no difference! The result was exactly as before.

I have also made some other experiments without success. I used VideoReDo to take a 1-min. clip from the middle of the originally 5-min. "The Rock" video, under the assumption that maybe the very beginning of the original file was somehow deficient. I had to pass that 1-min. .mpg file back through VRD Quick Stream Fix before t2merge could utilize mplex on the intermediate output files, but after I did that t2merge was able to recognize its two output intermediates and process them. Unfortunately, the result was a truncated file that only plays for 10 sec., not 1 min. The mplex process terminated normally, though, and (sadly) the intermediate files were removed automatically, so I could not use them manually with an mplex command. Also, there was no mplex.txt file generated to show me what might have caused mplex to terminate early.

Standalone kmttg - what is needed
Since the new premiere will support TS downloading, it looks like I'm about to become a kmttg user. The machine I want to put it on has no internet access, so I would need to put all that kmttg needed on CD and put it on that machine. I have TTG, VideoRedo and Java already on there. I don't need kmttg to decode, edit, etc. Just get the file from the Premiere to the PC hard disk as a .tivo file and I can take it from there.
Thanks for any help

Standalone kmttg - what is needed
Since the new premiere will support TS downloading, it looks like I'm about to become a kmttg user. The machine I want to put it on has no internet access, so I would need to put all that kmttg needed on CD and put it on that machine. I have TTG, VideoRedo and Java already on there. I don't need kmttg to decode, edit, etc. Just get the file from the Premiere to the PC hard disk as a .tivo file and I can take it from there.
Thanks for any help

Other than the kmttg installation you just need "curl" from the tools zip file. So a sample installation would be:
1. Make a folder for the kmttg installation:
c:\kmttg
2. Unzip kmttg_v0p7i.zip into that folder.
3. Unzip kmttg_win32_tools_v0p7h.zip into the same folder.
That's it. Run program by double-clicking on kmttg.jar. Under config make sure to configure to download in TS format.

Question for you Moyekj: Upgrading from kmttg_v0p7e to kmttg_v0p7i, would it be in my best interest to copy kmttg.jar into my execution folder*, and simply delete the tivodecode folder, allowing for kmttg to go out and download it for me?

*I install into a version named folder, such as \kmttg_v0p7b, \kmttg_v0p7c, etc., then copy the contents over to a non-version named "execution" folder: \kmttg. This allows for a quick fallback by copying the previous version back into the execution folder in case something goes sideways.

Question for you Moyekj: Upgrading from kmttg_v0p7e to kmttg_v0p7i, would it be in my best interest to copy kmttg.jar into my execution folder*, and simply delete the tivodecode folder, allowing for kmttg to go out and download it for me?

*I install into a version named folder, such as \kmttg_v0p7b, \kmttg_v0p7c, etc., then copy the contents over to a non-version named "execution" folder: \kmttg. This allows for a quick fallback by copying the previous version back into the execution folder in case something goes sideways.

I would do something like:
1. Unzip 7i into "execution" folder allowing it to overwrite existing files. (I assume you already have previous installation there with config.ini, auto.ini, auto.history etc which contains all your settings/preferences).
2. Remove "tivodecode" folder from "execution" folder.
3. Double click on kmttg.jar and let it download and install updated tools.

I would do something like:
1. Unzip 7i into "execution" folder allowing it to overwrite existing files. (I assume you already have previous installation there with config.ini, auto.ini, auto.history etc which contains all your settings/preferences).
2. Remove "tivodecode" folder from "execution" folder.
3. Double click on kmttg.jar and let it download and install updated tools.

Done and done. I think the kmttg_win32_tools_v0p7h.zip extracted over my comskip.ini. I'm pretty sure it was the default comskip.ini since I keep a copy of override comskip.ini's in the output folders that need overriden.

It ran all the way through and plays fine with captions correctly added when I transferred it back to my TivoHD.

That does not mean the problem is not encoding dependant however. Each cable channel sets its own encoding standards and they vary widely. There are many issues such as GOP length and the exact mixture of I, B, and P frames that can affect what comes out. I would like to get a short clip (~2 minutes) from you so I can see exactly what your video stream looks like. I will take that offline and PM you to do this as it has no general interest for the forum.

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It ran all the way through and plays fine with captions correctly added when I transferred it back to my TivoHD.

That does not mean the problem is not encoding dependant however. Each cable channel sets its own encoding standards and they vary widely. There are many issues such as GOP length and the exact mixture of I, B, and P frames that can affect what comes out. I would like to get a short clip (~2 minutes) from you so I can see exactly what your video stream looks like. I will take that offline and PM you to do this as it has no general interest for the forum.

Jim, I replied to your PM and uploaded a couple of clips to you. Thanks ...

1. I like the capability to remember the last window position and open to.
2. I like the capability to browse the files instead of having to 'add' files every time.
3. I like to see a time remaining on its current job.
4. I like the capability of remembering the column positions. I can re-arrange the columns but when kmttg is re-opened, its back to the original order.

For 1 it saves last tab you were in and resumes on that tab. A number of other things are also saved between sessions such as task selections and Encoding Profile.
For 4 it saves column orders however you have them for each TiVo and FILES tab and when you restart resumes with same order. Also under config Visual tab if you disable "Auto size NPL column widths" kmttg will also keep column widths as you had them.

1. I like the capability to remember the last window position and open to.
2. I like the capability to browse the files instead of having to 'add' files every time.
3. I like to see a time remaining on its current job.
4. I like the capability of remembering the column positions. I can re-arrange the columns but when kmttg is re-opened, its back to the original order.

Quote:

Originally Posted by moyekj

For 1 it saves last tab you were in and resumes on that tab. A number of other things are also saved between sessions such as task selections and Encoding Profile.
For 4 it saves column orders however you have them for each TiVo and FILES tab and when you restart resumes with same order. Also under config Visual tab if you disable "Auto size NPL column widths" kmttg will also keep column widths as you had them.

For 1, it doesn't remember the windows (screen) position when I open as a new task, the window aligns to the screen's left edge. However it does remember the window size.
For 4, what I am doing now is to drag the status column from the left side to the right side of jobs. The column returns to its original (left) column position upon opening as a new task.

For 4 the Now Playing table column positions are the ones that are remembered. Never considered bothering to save it for job table as didn't think anyone would bother re-arranging that one, but I suppose it could be done.
For 1 that's right, I don't save last physical position, just size, but I guess position would be easy enough to save/restore as well.

moyekj wrote,
> v0p7j version just released with some useful enhancements. <

Lots of good work. Thanks! A couple comments:

1) "Added automatic retry attempts for failed downloads which some users run into occasionally."

I'm sure this will be extremely useful, especially when coming back hours later to find that 1 or 2 huge files never even got started, due to some transient issue. Folks should also be aware though that things can still fail if you happen to leave your TiVo recordings in Pause mode... even after the recording is finished.

I do this frequently, to speed up the TTG process (Pausing recordings makes other transfers go faster), but you then need to remember to unPause it later. Even after it finishes recording, it'll still be "busy" AFA the TiVo is concerned, and won't transfer it. Pausing playback doesn't have the same limitations.

2) "Disk Usage GUI will now set Total Disk Space (GB) as the total used space if user has not set that option."

This can provide some useful information, but would be even more so if it could override your best guess. I.e., I think I have x-GB of recordable space on my unit (and I might be pretty close), but potentially there may be a few extra GB available I'm not aware of. If kmttg was monitoring this, it could just bump the value if it ever saw anything higher.

Yes, tivodecode and comskip were updated for windows, only tivodecode for Mac. (tivodecode 0.3pre4 with TS support).
Thanks again AudioNutz (Bill) for the Mac tools zip file update as I don't have a Mac to be able to update that package myself.

Yes, tivodecode and comskip were updated for windows, only tivodecode for Mac. (tivodecode 0.3pre4 with TS support).
Thanks again AudioNutz (Bill) for the Mac tools zip file update as I don't have a Mac to be able to update that package myself.

Thanks K -

I guess I have one more question: what happens to downloads that don't support TS (such as my workhorse 648 model), and the box is checked to force the TS download? Is the &FORMAT string ignored?

I guess I have one more question: what happens to downloads that don't support TS (such as my workhorse 648 model), and the box is checked to force the TS download? Is the &FORMAT string ignored?

The extra format string of the download URL is ignored by TiVos that don't support TS download option so it can't hurt to be enabled (and in fact for fresh kmttg installations is now enabled by default). I have 2 648s and have that option enabled with no side effects, and hope that some day TiVo bothers to enable TS container support for Series 3 TiVos.

The only thing I still haven't figured out is the Push feature. When I try to Push, it says 'Push job completed' and the title goes to auto_push.txt, but nothing else happens.

FYI the kmttg pyTivo push task is completely independent from the auto_push tool. (You mentioned updating of auto_push.txt file which is part of auto_push tool and nothing to do with kmttg pyTivo push).
Note that if the TiVo you are pushing to is part of a TiVo beta program the production mind server is different and hence pushes via mind.tivo.com won't work (as is the case with TiVo Desktop auto pushes).

1) "Added automatic retry attempts for failed downloads which some users run into occasionally."

I'm sure this will be extremely useful, especially when coming back hours later to find that 1 or 2 huge files never even got started, due to some transient issue. Folks should also be aware though that things can still fail if you happen to leave your TiVo recordings in Pause mode... even after the recording is finished.

I have this same problem frequently. Maybe it's because my WD expander is getting flaky.

At any rate, when I get Server Busy I usually have been able to recover by using the File -> Reset TiVo Web Server menu option. It's a lot more convenient than rebooting the TiVo. Hopefully this new code does the recovery automatically. I'll give it a try today.

moyekj commented:
> ...hope that some day TiVo bothers to enable TS container support for Series 3 TiVos. <

??? Is this not included in the 11.0f release, currently being pushed out?

- Tim

Nope at least not for me. One of my units has 11.0f and I don't see that option available using https in web browser. According to TivoJerry 11.0f was just a bug fix release so I doubt we would see such enhancements in that release (or potentially any series 3 software update in the future). Looks like most resources will now be devoted to fixing issues and improving HDUI of the Premiere units so I don't expect series 3 to get much attention, but of course that is pure speculation on my part.

EDIT: Seeing as New Zealand & Australia units have version 14.x and the Premiere has 14.x and all of those support TS downloads I would expect if by chance we do get TS support for series 3 units it would be in a 14.x version or later. (The Premiere units have "Classic UI" version which apparently looks mostly like we have on series 3 so maybe that suggests the underlying classic UI could be shared among series 3 & 4 platforms at least initially).

moyekj,
> One of my units has 11.0f and I don't see that option available using https in web browser. <

Thanks very much for that information! That's really good to know. I was anxiously awaiting this update to arrive, so I could finally get all the files off my TiVo that TTG (PS mode) truncates. Sounds like that's not going to happen on this update cycle. (And potentially, never.)

I've only been waiting 2 years for them to fix this. When I heard that a new update was finally rolling out, I jumped to the conclusion that a capability they added to the Aussie version 5 months ago would be incorporated here.

I'll need to go in and do a slash and burn, because my unit is now ~80% full of files I've been unable to transfer. I guess I also also need to ask myself why I have a TiVo, since it's obviously not working for me.

If you have more than 1 unit and know the point where TTG is cutting off you can try setting pause point to there and then do a partial MRV transfer (from paused point) to other unit and eventually end up with 2 partial files you can stitch back together. Messy way of going about it but feasible if there are shows you really would like to keep. Knock on wood I've never ran into a case where TTG only gives me a partial file...

Thanks for the suggestion! That's some pretty smart thinking. Yes, I can find the exact points where it truncates (by looking at the piece I do manage to get). But I don't have another S3.

One other option, along the same lines, could be to buy a Premiere, MRV everything over, then TTG it down from the Premiere in TS mode. Those are some very impressive download speeds that bkdtv demoed!